Warriors update: On the Erman secret taping report, Mark Jackson’s fate, and more (oh, there’s Game 5 tonight, I almost forgot)

LOS ANGELES–Everything is apparently happening almost all at once, and let’s try to sort through the most immediate things right now, as we wait for commissioner Adam Silver to address the Donald Sterling crisis in a little while, then there’s Game 5, oh that’s right…

That coincides with, clarifies and amplifies what little I’ve heard about this matter–it wasn’t anything that involved police or harassment, and though it didn’t directly involve anything Mark Jackson did, it is part of the general odd atmosphere around the Warriors this season. (While they won 51 games.)

You can blame Joe Lacob and the front office for this (for exerting pressure on the team and the coaching staff to show more signs of improvement) or you can blame Scalabrine and Erman for acting in a way that forced their dispatching.

Or, as I believe the Warriors front office is generally judging this, you can point out that Jackson is the one who put together this staff, and if two of his top guys splinter off in other directions–again, while the team is WINNING–there could be tough conclusions made about Jackson’s tenure.

Some people have jumped to the belief that Erman might’ve been doing the alleged taping at the request of the GSW front office.

I have heard zero indication of this and my sense is that when the front office was made aware of the secret tapes, he was fired.

But I do believe Erman thought he was accruing information, and I do not believe that mission–or that information–was intended in a kind way towards Jackson.

(If he was sharing them with front office staffers, or was asked to do this by any other Warriors employee, this is a HUGE DEAL. But I just don’t think so. Otherwise, Erman would not have gone as quietly as he did.)

Did the Celtics know the reasons why Erman was fired and hire him any way? As one NBA source told me recently: “Everybody in the league knows what happened.”

Well, they absolutely do now.

* I’ll write more about this a little later, but one giant looming issue for the Warriors in any conversation about Mark Jackson’s future: The composition of his coaching staff.

To say that Warriors execs aren’t happy with a staff that, by playoff time, has ended up as Pete Myers, Lindsey Hunter and a few inexperienced hands… is a vast understatement.

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But Jackson has had total authority to hire his own staff. I would expect the GSW brass to insist that he either hires better, more stable staffers or that they will try to take that power away from him.

And if you want to look for an issue… that might be the one that ends his tenure.

* Marc Stein of ESPN is reporting that the Knicks are making a push to finalize a deal to hire Steve Kerr as their coach at the end of the first round.

That makes sense in a lot of ways: Kerr is obviously Phil Jackson’s first choice and there is not second choice on the horizon yet.

Also, the Knicks probably would like to keep Kerr away from other teams who might begin their searches after the first round… such as, yes, the Warriors, who are known to be high on Kerr.

But I don’t think this is a race to Kerr, or if it is, that the Warriors would do anything presumptive.

They still haven’t had a final decision on Mark Jackson, that I know of, and if they make the call to remove Jackson, I believe there are other possible candidates beyond Kerr.

In fact, I would circle Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg as probably ahead of Kerr on any Warriors’ potential wish list, should they move on from Jackson.

Why the heck would anyone tape conversations in that manner? This seems an ominous opening salvo to a bad story to come.

Bigmouth

If you’re Jackson, how do you stay after this? And if you’re a coach, is there anyway in hell you come to work for Lacob?

Bigmouth

I think the suspicion is he was doing so at the behest of Lacob, which is why he got the job with the C’s.

Hopper15

Creepy, glad he’s gone

Marcus Parham

Exactly! Do you think the Celtics would hire Erman before talking to Lacob? Lacob had to give a glowing reference on Erman, that’s his former club (Celtics owner). This story isn’t over…

coltraning

Erman got paid off by Lacob, as he was Lacob’s mole and the payoff was the Boston job, where Lacob still has many connections from his time as owner. There is a rat in all of this,and it is Joe Lacob. Donald Sterling move over, there is another sleazy owner in California.

BananaSpartan

Anyone else looking forward to watching Game 5 tonight? Hello, the Warriors are still alive in the playoffs?! Tim, perhaps a preview of the in game matchups?

Howard

My guess is that Erman provided taped evidence to MJax that Scalabrine was disloyal, probably in private conservations with Bogut. MJax wanted to fire Scalabrine, but since the info was obtained illegally, they didn’t want a lawsuit, so he was reassigned to Santa Cruz (where he proceeded to have a huge and immediate positive impact to Og Kuzmic’s game). The Erman firing came later as his case worked it’s way through the HR process. Once he was fired, MJax had nothing but great things to say about the little fella.

Mark M

My first thought as well. But to take that further, it would seem to indicate a total lack of trust in the coach which tells me this is Jackson’s last season.

Stan

He didn’t tape to help fire anybody. He did it because he was worried about himself. If he did it for anybody else…like Jackson,then Mark would have been let go too.

Stan

And how is it no local writer knew all this? Our insiders seem Outside.

Bigmouth

Yep, the rumor I heard is, barring a long playoff run, Jackson is gone. Which is something I never thought Lacob would have the balls to do, especially after Bogey’s injury.

But here’s the dilemma. Do you think name coaches will want to work for Lacob if it turns out he was behind the taping? That would shade me out, personally…

Howard

Scalabrine wasn’t fired, he was reassigned. He practically took over the bench in Santa Cruz and got the team fired up and in position. It was really impressive to see how he embraced the assignment. A true pro and champion.

I agree that little man likely taped to cover his own butt and gain a competitive advantage over the other coaches. What a filthy scummy lawyer. Scalabrine was already in trouble: you could see on the bench that he and O’Neill (an MJax disciple) didn’t get along very well. Erman probably made a move to discredit Scalabrine and had to admit or was caught taping.

Sam Lowry Jr.

Jackson wanted Erman gone months ago and even went as far as allegedly moving his parking spot and reducing his responsibilities on the team. Erman probably got paranoid and started recording coaches’ conversations to build a case for himself. That’s not all with the Jackson shenanigans: he also wanted Jerry West away from the team!

What’s puzzling is that it took outsider Zach Lowe to report this and not any of the Bay Area beat writers….

ds207

Since Jackson can pick his own staff of assistants, isn’t HE to blame if 2 of them bomb out? Maybe Jackson is just lousy at picking his help, which won’t help him keep his job in Lacob’s eyes. Despite winning seasons last year and this year, it looks like Lacob is looking for an excuse not to bring Jackson back.